Political Dig

Fox News Just Got Pulled Off The Air In Britain Because It Has No Audience

Fox News parent company, 21st Century Fox, has announced that the right-wing-network will no longer be broadcast in the U.K. after failing to attract an audience.

“Fox News is focused on the U.S. market and designed for a U.S. audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the U.K.,” 21st Century Fox said in a statement published on CNN. “We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the U.K.”

21st Century Fox said the network’s final broadcast in the U.K. would be Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. local time, according to CNN.

While 21st Century Fox said its decision was based on the channel’s inability to attract a considerable audience, critics say it’s actually an attempt to insulate 21st Century Fox from criticism as it seeks to win approval for its takeover of Sky — 21st Century Fox owns a controlling stake in Sky PLC, the parent company of the London-headquartered network.

If the takeover is successful, it would give Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch access to Sky’s 22 million customers in Europe. This audience would be in addition to those of the three U.K. newspapers ― The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times ― that the media mogul already owns.

In June, officials delayed Murdoch’s attempted takeover of the 61 percent of Sky that his family does not currently own. British authorities asked regulators to review the deal to see if the takeover would give the family too much control over the country’s media landscape.